


Free hours into eternity

by Tanacetum



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Enthusiastic Consent, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, Rope Bondage, Sexual Experimentation, Tens Unit, They have fun, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, just some really goofy sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 21:34:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14902451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tanacetum/pseuds/Tanacetum
Summary: Barry and Lup get some time to themselves





	Free hours into eternity

**Author's Note:**

> Real life friends don't interact, please.

Lup seals the bowl of rising dough with plastic wrap, strips off her sweatpants and apron, and kicks back with a magazine for the three minutes she has left until she shears into a million threads of white light and reforms on the deck. There’s more she could’ve done to make the transition easy—Davenport wears his full uniform and stands at the wheel, unless he wants to generate a spare copy—but Taako’s anchoring grip on her forearm is all she ever needs to ground her.

She feels his hand, then the deck beneath her feet, then the starch of her fresh IPRE uniform and the weight of long hair spilling down her back. Taako pulls her into a quick side hug. Resetting’s instantly dried him from his elaborate bubble bath, which of course was his plan all along. She hopes they can skip the drama of getting that bathroom door unlocked this cycle. Last time Taako pulled this Magnus decided to teach himself lockpicking, and then they had to add “new doorknob” to the shopping list for their first supply run.

Taako steps back from her and she whirls and launches herself at Barry. Both of his arms come up to catch her and they laugh giddily. “Look at you!” she says. “Feeling good, babe?”

“Like a million bucks,” he says, flushed and grinning. He spins and dips her, and she bounces back up and kisses him with lots of tongue. Merle catcalls them and Taako retches.

Barry and Merle had the hardest time of it last cycle. The crew found the Light at the eight-month mark, stashed high in the craggy ceiling of a cave system by a colony of bat analogs. Instead of levitating up through the flock they decided to sneak in from the top. Lup and Lucretia tracked bats around the arid landscape and mapped caves until they found the closest exterior entrance to the Light, Taako stone-shaped to widen the tunnel, and Magnus and Barry anchored the ropes. They waited until the bats swarmed out to hunt. Then Merle, claiming that his hiking experience was close enough to rock-climbing, took Davenport to rappel down.

They got the Light. But Davenport’s line tangled on an outcropping on the way back up. Merle took off his harness to clamber over and free him. That was when the bats ambushed them. They both slipped, tugging every one of Davenport’s anchors out. His rope jerked taut and Barry, suddenly burdened with more than twice the weight they’d planned for, threw out his back and tore his rotator cuff.

The icing on the cake had been Taako pointing out that he could’ve transmuted columns or something to tie the ropes around but hadn’t spoken up. For that he got assigned to the expedition to retrieve Merle, after Magnus hauled up an empty harness and an angry, battered gnome. Davenport said that Merle had let himself drop to the cave floor. Lup and Taako spent a tense half-day spelunking, unsure whether they’d find him alive.

Then they had an exciting few weeks of trying to learn medicine from a concussed dwarf with like a hundred broken bones and his shitty old medical texts with decades’ worth of mysterious stains. Only their uniforms reset with their bodies, which is handy when you’re Magnus and you wreck your jacket the first month of every cycle, but sucks when you’re Barry and have forgotten to watch the clock for the fiftieth time. Last cycle he forgot to take off the sexy pair of black jeans that made his butt look amazing and they vanished to wherever reset clothes go, a casualty to causality like Lup’s flannel pajamas, Lucretia’s pocket pen stash, and that one necklace two decades ago Taako still won’t shut up about.

This reset Lup and Barry have both lost his ratty t-shirts. The one she was baking in was more hole than fabric and deserved to die, and Barry was half-dressed, laid up in bed. He’s been laid up in bed for _four months_. He joked that he missed being able to sit up enough to swap injuries with Merle, who could at least hobble around on crutches by the end of the cycle.

Now he and Merle are healthy and whole, shaking out their limbs and stretching for the joy of it. Lup’s all over Barry, leaning into him and kissing his forehead and cheeks gleefully. They cuddled every single day while he was stuck in bed, of course, but he was bored and in pain and frankly a little smelly, because prestidigitation’s a poor substitute for a shower and showers were onerous when he couldn’t stand up straight.

“Merle, Barry. Glad you’re both better,” Davenport calls from the wheel.

“Glad to be back, Cap’n!” Merle says. “Sick of these kids running all over my med bay.”

“You’re fucking welcome,” Taako says, “for the hours and hours cha’boy put into _nursing you back to health_. You think I wanted to be up in your space, old man? Your med bay’s a gross disaster, you have like, like, your plant erotica, just _mixed in_ with your anatomy texts—”

Merle waggles his eyebrows. “It’s all anatomy!”

Taako screeches and turns to Lup for support, catches her nibbling Barry’s ear, and throws up his hands. “Gross! All of you! Taako’s _out_.”

“ _Ko-ko_ ,” Lup sings, draped over Barry’s shoulders. “I’ve got some rye bread rising in the kitchen, can you please take it over for me?”

“If we end this conversation before you strip Barold in public, then yes!” he shouts, retreating belowdecks. “See you when you’re _decent!_ ”

Magnus bounces up to Davenport and leans over him to peer at the console. “How long till the next plane, Cap’n?”

“ETE about forty hours,” he replies. “Keep yourself entertained without breaking anything until then, please.”

“Taako left the bathroom door locked,” Lucretia says with a dry undertone that Lup knows is disguising a smile.

Davenport closes his eyes and sucks in a breath through his nose. Magnus claps his hands. “I’m on it!” he says, sprinting for the stairs.

“Gods, _Lucretia_ , stop him,” Davenport says. She giggles and salutes. “Barry, Lup—get a room. Briefing in two days. Put the lab and med bay back together beforehand.”

They salute and follow Lucretia down the stairs. The captain’s right—Lup spent four months migrating Barry’s notes and half the medical texts and the heating pads and the painkillers and all manner of other detritus to Barry’s room so he could work from bed. He raises an eyebrow at her when he sees the state she left the floor in and then nearly trips on a pile of discarded clothes. So that’s where her favorite tank top went.

Barry levers up the board he’s been using as a desk and manages to set it down on the floor without every paper and book sliding off. That clears about a third of his bed. Lup’s shucked her jacket and cloak and is unbuttoning her shirt when he turns around.

He laughs. “You know, I’m actually looking forward to cleaning? Just, being able to, after all this time?”

“I’ve got all kinds of things I’m looking forward to after all this time, babe,” Lup says. She’s only got a couple buttons left at the bottom of her shirt, so she flips up her bra and grins at him with her tits out.

He blushes and covers his face. “Gods, those are lethal, c’mon. We don’t even have a mattress to work with, here.”

He’s right. Lup groans about it, but she trades her uniform shirt and bra for that comfy tank top and sets to carting out piles of stuff. She can hear Taako and Magnus laughing about something down the hall, and she finds Lucretia in the med bay, stalwartly reorganizing things with Merle. She dumps an armload of crap in the lab and returns to see Barry putting her stray laundry in an actual hamper. He’s really taking this cleaning thing seriously, but when she goes to pack away the heating pad he stops her.

“Uh, hang on,” he says. “Some of that can stay.”

“You still having some pain, babe?” she asks, picking it up. Then she sees the TENS unit tucked under it. “That deffo belongs in the med bay.”

“Maybenotjustyet,” Barry says in a rush. In that particular tone that lets her know he’s sitting on something.

The bed’s cleared off. She throws herself down on it, TENS unit in hand, and lounges. She’s not worried about whether he’s in pain anymore, because he’s gone bright red from collar to forehead. “Baaaaaaaabe,” she says, rolling over and letting her hair cascade off the mattress. “Spill. Do we have plans? _Sexy_ plans?”

“I—was just thinking…” he says, gathering courage. A lot of Lup’s favorite evenings have started out this way. “Well, we haven’t tried it.”

“How good does this feel?” Lup asks, picking at one of the sticky gel pads. She knows it helped his back—she’s stuck the pads to him nearly every night for months, because it took rhythmic pulses of electricity _and_ the heating pad _and_ painkillers for him to sleep. She turns it on and laughs when she sees it’s at full battery. Barry absolutely swapped in a new one while she was out of the room.

“I was hoping you’d tell me,” he says. He sits down beside her on the bed and she drops the TENS unit to roll over and crawl onto his lap. She straddles him and grins with her arms balanced on his shoulders.

“Babe, I am all for it,” she says. “ _So_ down for some kinky sex, you know _exactly_ where I’m coming from.”

He circles his arms around her back and presses his face into her chest. “I missed this too,” he says. Then he draws his wand from his back pocket and she hears the door lock behind her.

Lup takes the wand from him and silences the room, then leans to toss it at the nightstand. She falls back onto the bed and pulls Barry down with her. He’s still moving a little stiffly, conscious of his freshly-healed shoulder. But he pins her down and kisses her with heat.

Lup locks her ankles behind his back and darts her tongue between his teeth. Barry chokes on a laugh before opening up. He lets her deepen the kiss while she starts tugging his shirt out of his jeans. He’s not helpful at all, too busy caressing her hair, so she levers her hips up and grinds against his crotch.

“Get. The jeans. Off,” she says, giggling when he breaks the kiss to mouth at her jawline. “I love you. The jeans must die.”

Barry collapses on top of her and laughs with his face pressed into her neck. It’s ticklish; Lup’s ears flick frantically. “These are the immortal jeans,” he wheezes. “I’m real sorry, but they’ll be with us into eternity.”

Lup slips her fingers into his waistband and drags them along his sides. Then she digs in and tickles him, because having his face in her neck raised goosebumps along her whole body and she deserves revenge. “I knowww, babe. I’ve known them for decades, I see them in my nightmares. We have been to literally dozens of worlds and your faded mom jeans will _never_ be in style.”

Barry’s laughing full-bodied, harder than he has in months. For a while he couldn’t laugh at all without tweaking his back. Lup’s overcome with joy to see him happy. But she’d be overcome with more joy to see him _naked_ and happy, so she shoves at his shoulders until he sits up and then curls forward, grabs his shirt, and yanks it over his head.

It snags his glasses on the way up and they go flying. He splutters. “Don’t worry about it!” she says, tossing the shirt away. He cleaned the floor, they’ll be easy to find later.

He pouts and it’s the cutest thing she’s ever seen, aside from all those other times she’s seen his face. She loves him so much. “C’mon, Lup, those just reformed.”

“And Taako knows Mending, we’re all good here!” she says. His pudge is poking over the waistband of his jeans and she likes it, but he could be sexier. She attacks his fly, popping the button before he shoves her wrist away to carefully tug the zipper down.

Barry rolls off the bed and stands up to strip his jeans and boxers. He bends over and rummages for a while—Lup hopes he’s taking his socks off—so she kicks away her shoes and shimmies out of her clothes while she waits, sending them sailing past him when he straightens up.

He didn’t take his socks off, but he’s got her favorite hemp ropes spooled in his hands. She claps and whistles. “You’re going all-out, babe!”

“Yeah, I sure am,” he says. She scoots to sit at the edge of the bed and lets her legs fall open, enjoying the way his gaze snaps to her. Lup knows she’s gorgeous, and she’s already a little flushed from two minutes of makeouts with Barry, mom jeans and all. “I’ve had—had a _lot_ of time to think about this.”

“I can tell,” she says. “But you sure you don’t want a quickie? It’s been a while.”

Barry looms over her and leans his knees between her thighs. He caresses the back of her neck with one hand and kisses her gently, then insistently, licking into her mouth and sucking at her lower lip until she gasps against him. “I know exactly what I want,” he says, when she pulls back for air. “I want to tie you up and take my time with you.”

Lup’s a little too punch-drunk to take the mood seriously. “If you want me to be patient you def-in-itely need the rope, babe,” she says, affecting a sultry tone and running her fingers across his chest. “Because I’m _so_ ready for you to nut.”

Barry groans and wheezes so hard his shoulders shake. He shoves Lup over and collapses next to her on the bed, reddened and teary from hysterics. Lup pats his back with an impish grin until he catches his breath. “Holy—holy shit,” he says, quilt muffling his voice. “That was _bad_. That was the _worst_. I love you so much, you’re perfect.”

“ _You’re_ perfect,” Lup counters, “except for the socks. C’mon, babe.” They’re the same white ankle ones that he always bought before Lup jazzed up his wardrobe. He’s beautiful from his flushed ears to his broad back to his banging ass, and then his legs are fuzzy and sexy, _and then the_ _socks_.

“I’m going to tie you up,” he says, turning his head to roll his eyes at her. “You won’t know they’re there.”

“Yes, I will,” she says. “I’m always one-hundo percent aware of the state of your hot bod. You already know I don’t like you in clothes, c’moooooon.”

“Fine, I’ll have cold toes for you.” He rolls over and shoves a foot at her stomach. She tugs the sock off with extreme prejudice, leans to get the other one, and balls them up. Then she makes an expert throw and sinks them behind the bookshelf, hopefully never to see the light of day again.

Barry’s pushing himself up on his elbows and squinting. “Where’d those go?”

“Shhhh, kiss me now,” Lup says. She presses her mouth into his, giggling so much that she clacks their teeth together.

“You can’t destroy my socks, Lup,” he says. She hops into his lap and plasters herself across his chest. “They’ll be back again next year!”

He’s lovely under her, smooth skin and fluffy chest hair warm against her breasts. She shoves her thigh between his legs. He’s only half-hard. Further proof that socks aren’t sexy. He gives her ass an appreciative pat, not nearly turned on enough for her purposes. “Nope, they’re gone forever. Completely annihilated. Tell me I’ve been a bad girl.”

“Never,” he says. He shifts his grip to knead at her thighs, then traces up to her slit with featherlight fingers. She shivers. “You’re amazing. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wake up every day thinking, ‘wow, I’m the luckiest guy in the multiverse’.”

He pauses with the tip of one pinky brushing her entrance and she spends a moment where that’s her entire world, every other thought blown out of her mind. Then she wets her lips and kisses him. “Gods, I love you so much, babe,” she breathes, feeling his heart beat under her palm.

Barry kisses back, and his lips are soft on hers, his tongue slick and warm in her mouth. She’s dizzy in seconds. She wants to touch every part of him at once, she wants him inside her. He’s flipped her on her back before she realizes what’s happening, and he kneels over her, finally, gratifyingly hard.

“Love you too,” he says with a grin. He’s got the ropes coiled around his knuckles. They’re a glossy, vibrant red that looks good on both of them. Lup offers her wrists and cooperates for the seconds he takes to secure them at her chest with a simple double-column tie. Then she sneaks her toes into the soft backs of his knees and starts tickling him again. He swats her thigh and captures her foot.

Barry ties ropes around each of her ankles, bends her legs, and loops the dangling ends high around her thighs. He spirals the rope to wrap her left leg and hitches it in place while she works her other leg out of the unfinished tie. She prods his side with her knee while he cinches off the first knot. Then he grabs her free leg and digs fingertips into the arch of her foot.

Lup squeals and convulses, unable to writhe away. “That’s what you get!” Barry laughs, blowing air in between her toes. “We coulda been through this part if you’d quit wiggling.”

“Never!” Lup says. She makes Barry pin her leg in place to finish the last tie, squirming against his efforts until he’s almost done with the hitches. Then she falls still.  Her wrists are heavy on her breasts and her heels are bound to the backs of her thighs. She’d have to strain uncomfortably to close her legs. Her body’s completely exposed, labia slightly parted, already wet enough to make the air feel cooler.

Barry’s rock hard and not even sparing a hand to touch himself. The fingers he trails up her legs move unbearably slow. He stops when he reaches the tendons at the insides of her thighs and chuckles when she whines. Then he shifts away and that’s _even_ _worse_. She wants him warm and solid on top of her, not sitting back and fiddling with the TENS unit. If it were up to her she’d be riding him already.

Lup counts off thirty seconds while she tracks what Barry’s doing from how he shifts on the mattress. Then she hears paper crinkle and cranes her head to investigate. He’s sitting cross-legged with a pamphlet in his hands. “Is that the _manual?_ ” she says, aghast. “Barry J. Bluejeans, put that down and fuck me _immediately_.”

“I need to check something,” Barry says, fighting back a grin.

“You do not, there are maybe _five_ buttons!”

“I needed to check how long it would take you to get impatient,” he says. “About, uh—not even a minute, babe.”

Lup groans theatrically. “You suck. You’re awful. C’mon, let’s _go_.”

Barry taps a finger on his chin and folds the manual closed. “Not feeling very seduced over here.”

“What’m I supposed to do about that?!” Lup shrieks, laughing. She twists her wrists in the ropes and flaps her knees, demonstrating how little she can move.

“Well, this is a great view,” he says, closing hands over her knees and holding her still, “so that’s a start.” His eyes rake over her body, edges of his mouth curving up in a smirk. “There’s definitely more you could be doing here. Maybe try asking me nicely.”

“Please?” Lup whispers, cheeks heating.

“Please what?” Barry cups a hand around one ear. He’s enjoying this way too much.

“Please, _please_ touch me.” It’s embarrassing, how her voice breaks at the end. Her face is burning and the sheets suddenly feel cold against her eartips.

Barry hums contentedly. He sets the pamphlet down and shifts towards her, every movement glacially unhurried. His head dips towards her clit and she tenses, hopeful, but he catches the look on her face and sits up straight. She’s about to complain when he cups her mound in his palm and presses down.

She sinks back into the mattress. He kneads at her, massaging her clit and stroking fingers along her labia. The warmth and movement is wonderful, but soon the pleasure’s subsumed by how achingly empty she feels. His fingers tease at her entrance and the pressure from his hand diminishes. The more sensitive she becomes the more he pulls back, until his hand’s hovering over her as she struggles to push her hips up and rut against him.

He pats her clit sharply and withdraws his hand. This is why Lup prefers to top. Barry’s way too entertained by making her squirm. She could’ve unwound him already, had him shaking and desperate inside her. He meets her pout with a smug grin and turns his attention to the TENS unit.

This better be the best sex ever after how long Barry’s drawn things out. If they’re interrupted before she gets off Lup might scream. Barry peels the sticky pads up from their protective plastic and smooths them in place on her inner thighs, just below the loops of rope. They don’t feel like much anything, not even the ones set as close to her labia as he could get them. If it wasn’t for the dangling wires brushing against her she could forget they were there.

She’s abruptly, irrationally terrified. The wires call attention to the fact that this is a machine for sending electricity into her nerves. It doesn’t matter that she’s used this dozens of times on Barry—it’s really close to a _really_ sensitive spot. She stiffens, anticipating a shock, toes curling and muscles clenching. Barry moves and her thigh _stings_ and she startles with a yelp.

He _pinched_ her. He taps the pads of two fingers like pincers above her thigh, barely holding in laughter. “You’re a bastard!” she says. Her heart’s racing in her chest. If she wasn’t bright red before she sure is now.

“You love it,” he says, trailing fingertips across her skin. He skirts the edge of her clit and strokes between her labia, gathering wetness. “Look at you, you’re absolutely soaked.”

“We’ve been doing foreplay for like an _hour_ , of course I am.”

“Not even twenty minutes, sorry. But, hey, if you want that full hour—”

Lup tries to knee him in the jaw. He catches her bound leg easily and shoves it back down to the mattress. “Quit teasing!” Lup says. “What’re the odds of us getting a full hour to ourselves? Not good, historically!”

“Okay, you uh—you have a point, there,” Barry says. “Can you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Lup says. She can feel lots of things—the sheets under her back, his hand on her knee, the dangling wires, how completely ready she is to get railed.

He thumbs at the TENS unit. This time she hears the click. “How about now?”

There’s a featherlight staccato pulse against her skin. Like tapping fingers. _Exactly_ like Barry’s still teasing her. “Can’t feel anything,” Lup says. Barry hits another button. The pulses increase ever so slightly. “Noooope. Keep going, babe.”

He depresses a button and holds it until the tapping sharpens. She fidgets, trying to decide whether it’s good pain or not, but he turns the TENS back down without her having to ask. “What’s that feel like?”

“Poking, I guess? I dunno, babe,” Lup says. Not anything like an electric shock, or even static. She’s surprised to find herself a bit disappointed. It’s interesting, with how the sensation’s entirely in her muscles and her skin barely even feels the pads, but it’s much milder than she was expecting.

Then Barry strokes her again and she clenches. The tapping sinks into her muscles. Her legs pulse with it, like she’s got two hands gripping the insides of her thighs, even as Barry withdraws and stretches out. “Oh well,” he says, settling himself on his stomach. “You haven’t been patient, but you’ve been pretty good for me.”

He brushes the wires aside and spreads her lips apart. She’s so sensitive she can feel his breath on her, and when he runs his tongue up her slit she moans. He mouths at her skin, gently rolling her between his lips and circling her clit. He flattens his tongue and licks roughly. Lup’s thighs quake and strain against the ropes. Barry works her clit with his tongue and probes a fingertip into her entrance.

She’s wet but closed tight, strung-out by the stimulation of his head between her thighs and the pulsing in her muscles. “Is this okay?” he asks, gently sliding one finger inside her.

It takes Lup a second to figure out she’s not being teased anymore. “Yes, Barry, _please_ ,” she says. “I’m doing _great_ , green light means go!”

He hums against her skin. She forces herself to relax, breathing deeply, even as he slides a second finger in. He sucks at her clit while he pumps his fingers inside her, twisting and curling them until she’s pressing up into his mouth and gasping. The tapping beneath her skin intensifies as heat pools where his hands and mouth meet her body, until she’s lost track of everything but the raw sensation. His fingers drag and catch as she tightens around them. She comes with his mouth sealed around her clit, bucking so hard that she curls up from the mattress.

And she keeps coming, even as he lifts his face from her trembling body. “Oh, _wow_ ,” he says, delighted, lips slick and shiny with her wetness. She traps his wrist between her thighs, clenching around his fingers to chase as much pleasure as she can. She can feel her pulse rushing in her clit, how she flutters around Barry’s fingers, silky and hot. When she’s finished quivering Barry pushes her legs open and slides his hand free, shaking it out with a wince.

Lup clenches on nothing and moans. She’s not ready to be empty. Barry’s sitting back on his heels, one hand gripping his cock while he watches her with hungry eyes. “Get in here,” she says, shifting her legs. “C’mon, I wanna feel you.”

Barry takes her wrists in one hand and tugs them above her head, pinning them to the pillow so he can stretch out on top of her. His weight’s a welcome comfort, warm and familiar. She catches his mouth and kisses him, tasting herself on his tongue, tangy with an edge of sweetness. His legs press against the pads pulsing on her thighs as he fits their hips together. His cock slides into her, effortlessly smooth.

He drags back and then snaps forward. When he pulls away to thrust again Lup squeezes around him, added friction drawing the motion out. “Do that again,” he says, shuddering. She mumbles into his shoulder and relaxes so he can slide back in, writhing when he sinks so deep that his pelvis is flush with hers.

She clenches around him as he thrusts, canting her hips up to meet him. He props himself on his hands for more leverage and smiles down at her. He’s so handsome, flushed and sweaty from exertion, with bangs poking up askew and an adoring smile like she’s offered him the world. He reaches up and grips one of her bound hands in his, stilling inside her while he peppers her face with kisses and laces their fingers together.

Then his cock snaps into her so hard that the bed creaks. She gasps and goes limp as he pounds her, the pace so fast that she can’t move at all. His thrusts grow erratic and he shakes with the effort of holding back, moving shallowly as his fingers dig into hers.

“I’m close,” she whispers, squeezing his hand. “I’m so close, babe, almost there.”

“C’mon, baby,” he pants. “Gods, you’re _gorgeous_. You feel so good, Lup. I love you so much.”

Lup moans and rolls her hips against Barry. Pressing her heels down on the mattress yanks the ropes. They dig into her thighs as she strains for friction on her clit. Barry gets the idea and pushes himself up, shoving his hand between their hips and massaging. He thrusts for only a few more strokes before she comes again, worn-out enough that her breath catches in her throat and she barely tightens at all.

Her eyes flutter shut. She pulls away from Barry’s hand and goes slack under him. He levers her hips up and curls one arm around her, moving the other to cradle the back of her neck and rub gentle circles at the base of her skull with his thumb. She smiles sleepily and drifts as he thrusts into her. He moves exactly as it suits him, focused on his own pleasure until he grunts and spills deep inside her.

She hooks her bound wrists around Barry’s neck and tugs until he collapses onto her chest. He takes deep breaths and then has to splutter and blow her hair out of his mouth. She lets him sit up and pull out while she laughs, feeling wet warmth roll along the curve of her ass.

Barry peels the pads off her thighs sticks them back on the plastic. “Shoot, we need a towel,” he says, squinting as he tries to scan the room.

“Betcha put it in the laundry, babe,” she says. “Alllll the way by the door. Mistake!”

Barry balls the wires around the TENS unit and tosses it aside. “We can wash the sheets today, I guess. For-real wash them—prestidigitation doesn’t cut it.”

“ _You_ can wash the sheets,” Lup says, reclining back. “I’m a little ‘tied up’.”

“Har-har,” Barry says. He plucks the knots at her ankles loose and slides the ropes off. Lup stretches out the second she’s able, stiff knees popping. Barry massages at the divots the ropes left in her thighs until she wraps her legs around him.

“We should wash us, too,” Barry says, twisting in her hold.

“Mh-hmm,” Lup replies, moving only to try and hook her wrists behind his neck again. It’s cuddling time, Barry needs to get with the program. “Here’s where I’m coming from, Bear: do you _really_ think the good bath’s free?”

Barry considers this. He opens and closes his mouth, working through a few false starts before he concedes. “It’s—uh, at least it’s probably unlocked, by now?”

“You wanna take that chance? Or do you wanna cuddle with your sexy girlfriend?”

“You’re sticky,” Barry complains. Lup swats him. “Yeah, yeah, it’s my fault.”

“Hell yeah it is,” Lup says. She shoves her wrists in his face and he unknots the last of the rope, falling directly into her trap. With her hands free she pounces and wrestles him to the mattress in a flash. He protests as she clambers on top of him. “Shhh, let me hold you.”

Barry squirms. “Lup, I’m overheating.”

“It’s delicious, babe, I love it,” Lup says, sighing against his chest. She splays a hand over his sternum and keeps her weight on it until he stops trying to sit up. She doesn’t mind the sweat gathering between them, not when Barry’s warm as sunshine. A perfect soft squishy heating pad for her whole body, stroking her back and huffing a laugh.

After a few minutes Barry’s hands dart to her sides and he tickles her straight off the edge of the bed. She staggers on shaking legs to grab a towel from the laundry and doesn’t exaggerate her collapse back onto the mattress in the slightest. He wipes both of them dry and lets her settle back into his arms.

They miss dinner, dozing throughout the afternoon. They’re left alone to wake only for affectionate pillowtalk, repeating beloved patterns that’ll never feel old. The ship’s quiet when they sneak to the bath and raid the kitchen for leftovers. Lup sets candles on the table and wreathes the room in multicolored magic lights. She sits in her tanktop and a pair of Barry’s boxers, hair wrapped up in a towel, and he fixes his gaze on her and pronounces that she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

She might not believe him, except his glasses are horrifically smudged and his bathrobe’s covered in loose threads, and she’s still overcome by how handsome he is. Eating reheated spaghetti in the middle of the night feels as special as any other date. Lup’s seen a hundred wonders on dozens of planes—fungal forests and towering cities, beings with souls preserved in magic, archipelagoes of pristine beaches. But, if she were to recount the parts of her journey that stand out in her mind, she’d come back to moments with Barry like these. To the joy of being in love.

Barry smiles to hear it, and it’s many more hours before they put in an appearance for the rest of their family. They’ve earned the time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [distractedkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractedKat) for the beta and [emi_rose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emi_rose/pseuds/emi_rose) for helping me pick a title!


End file.
